1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to liquid ejecting heads that eject liquid from nozzles and liquid ejecting apparatuses, and particularly relates to ink jet recording heads that eject ink as a liquid and ink jet recording apparatuses.
2. Related Art
As an example of a liquid ejecting head that ejects liquid droplets, there is an ink jet recording head that, for example, includes pressure generation chambers that communicate with nozzles and piezoelectric actuators provided opposite to corresponding pressure generation chambers, and that ejects ink droplets from the nozzles by causing a change in pressure to occur within the pressure generation chambers as a result of displacement of the piezoelectric actuators.
Various structures have been proposed for such ink jet recording heads, but generally speaking, the head is configured by affixing a plurality of members to each other using an adhesive or the like (for example, see Japanese Patent No. 3402349).
In this manner, an ink flow channel in the ink jet recording head is generally formed by a plurality of members. Because the shape of the ink flow channel has a large influence on the ejection properties of the ink, it is preferable for the ink flow channel to be formed with a comparatively high degree of precision. Furthermore, it is desirable to increase the density at which the nozzles are formed in order to increase the printing quality. Accordingly, in recent years, flow channels, nozzles, and so on have been formed by using a silicon substrate as the material for the members of which the head is configured, and by etching the silicon substrate.
By using a silicon substrate in this manner, the flow channel, nozzles, and so on can be formed with a comparatively high degree of precision and at a high density. However, silicon substrates are a comparatively expensive material, and there is thus a problem in that using a silicon substrate will lead to an increase in costs.
It should be noted that this problem is not limited to ink jet recording heads that eject ink, and is also present in other liquid ejecting heads that eject liquids aside from ink.